Omega-3 Supplements Slow Biological Aging, Study Suggests
This benefit can seemingly be boosted by combining the supplements with vitamin D and exercise.

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Omega-3 supplements can slow down biological aging in older people, according to a new study.
This benefit may even be boosted by combining the supplements with vitamin D and exercise.
In a 3-year longitudinal trial involving participants aged 70 years or over, researchers found that consuming just 1 gram of omega-3 supplements per day slowed 3 out of 4 of the participants’ epigenetic clocks.
On its own, vitamin D supplementation didn’t appear to slow any of the studied clocks, but all four were slowed in the participants who consumed both supplement types and regularly exercised.
The findings were published in Nature Aging.
Stop the clocks
Omega-3 fatty acids – which can be found in oily fish and certain nuts and seeds – have been shown to reduce inflammation in the body and improve heart and brain health.
Other research has linked the fatty acids to changes in epigenetic markers, chemical tags on DNA that affect genes and, in some cases, biological aging.
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Subscribe for FREETo test this link, the researchers from the University of Zurich analyzed data taken from the DO-HEALTH cohort, a clinical trial project designed to support healthy aging in European seniors.
Out of the 2,157 participants in the study, 777 participants (aged between 70 and 91 years) were split into groups and asked to consume either an omega-3 supplement, a vitamin D supplement or both every day; some were also asked to combine this supplementation with a light exercise routine 3 times a week.
Blood samples were collected from the participants once a year.
After three years, the researchers found that the participants’ omega-3 habit moderately slowed biological aging across three of the four studied epigenetic clocks by up to four months.
What are epigenetic clocks?
Epigenetic aging clocks estimate a person’s biological age based on patterns of epigenetic markers, chemical tags called methyl groups that are attached to DNA and affect how genes are expressed.
The participants that only took daily vitamin D supplements didn’t display any such slowed aging, but those who took both supplements and stuck to the exercise routine did – all four of their epigenetic clocks were slower.
The findings have been greeted with cautionary optimism by other researchers in the field of aging.
“It’s exciting to see these results showing the benefits of omega-3, vitamin D and exercise on aging.” Dr. Mary Ni Lochlann, a postdoctoral research fellow in geriatric medicine at King’s College London, told the UK’s Science Media Centre in a statement.
“While the study was focused on healthy and active older adults and led to a relatively small improvement in their ageing-biological-clocks, it adds to the growing evidence that these simple and fairly low-cost interventions are beneficial and, based on this and previous existing research, worth engaging in for adults as they get older.”
Reference: Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Gängler S, Wieczorek M, et al. Individual and additive effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and exercise on DNA methylation clocks of biological aging in older adults from the DO-HEALTH trial. Nat Aging. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s43587-024-00793-y